[nylug-talk] Tuesday 4 April 2000 LXNY General Meeting: Copyright and the Rightto Choose Operating Systems

[Jay Sulzberger <jays@panix.com>]

LXNY will have a general meeting Tuesday 4 April 2000.

This meeting is free and open to the public.

The meeting runs from 6:30 pm to 9:00 pm.  After the meeting full and
precise instructions on how to get to our traditional place of refreshment
will be given in clear.

Thanks to support of the IBM Corporation, the meeting is at their building
at 590 Madison Avenue at East 57th Street on the Island of Manhattan.
Enter the building at the corner of Madison and 57th and ask at the desk
for the floor and room number.


This meeting will be a general discussion meeting.


A brief report will be made on Refund Day activities in New York City.


Students and teachers and workers at institutions of learning, in
particular, students, faculty, and staff at Columbia University, are
invited to come to this meeting to discuss Columbia's proposed new policy
on copyright of software written by students, faculty, and staff.


<blockquote
  from="Michael Smith, Acting Managing Director LXNY"
  edit-level="light">

	    DOES THE UNIVERSITY OWN YOUR IDEAS?

Columbia University is presently considering a new ``Intellectual
Property'' Policy that will determine how much of the work you create
is controlled by you, and how much is controlled by the University. If
passed in its present form, its provisions will be binding on all
students, employees, and faculty of Columbia, whether one has signed
anything agreeing to its terms or not. A Standing Committee appointed
by the Provost will rule on all disputes between the creator and the
University: the creator may appeal its decisions only to the President,
and the President's decision will be considered final.

The Draft Proposal has a clause about software (section I.C.4. Software),
stating that anyone associated with Columbia who writes software that
could conceivably have commercial potential must disclose this software to
the University.*  As presently written and presently interpreted by the
Committee that drafted the Proposal, this would apply even to software
conceived and developed on your own time with your own computer in your
own home.

Apparently, the University has threatened to bypass the normal legislative
process and simply impose this new policy by administrative fiat. Only
a demonstration of widespread concern will block such a course of
action. If you have written software, hope to write software, or just
wish to preserve your right to keep your own thoughts to yourself,
your input to this process is needed now!

The document in its entirety can be seen at
http://moglen.law.columbia.edu/ip/policy-comment.html or at
https://www1.columbia.edu/sec/cu/provost/docs/copyright/cover.html or at
the University Senate page. You can make your views and suggestions known
1)by sending e-mail to ip-policy@columbia.edu, 2)by using the links on
the web pages containing this draft document, or 3)by participating in the
`town meeting' being held by the University in 207 Low Library on Tuesday,
April 4th at 2:00 pm.

 *<ga>`Because the analysis underlying the University's decision as to
 whether it will assert rights to any software may be more complex than
 the analysis with respect to other works, software is subject to special
 disclosure requirements. Specifically, if the faculty member or other
 creator believes the software has commercial potential or wishes to
 license or otherwise commercialize the software developed, whether or not
 the creator believes the University would assert rights to it, he or she
 must disclose the software to the University pursuant to the disclosure
 procedures described in Section II of this Policy. As set forth in
 those disclosure procedures, any disputes between the creator and the
 University with regard to the University's decision whether to assert
 rights shall be resolved by the Copyright Policy Standing Committee.'

-Michael E. Smith, MESmith@panix.com

</blockquote>

Jay Sulzberger <secretary@lxny.org>
Corresponding Secretary LXNY
LXNY is New York's Free Computing Organization.
http://www.lxny.org